November 16, 2024: Vladimir Putin has ordered MSF or Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders to leave Russia. This is an unpopular decision with most Russians. MSF has worked in Russia since the 1990s, when the Soviet Union collapsed and its long ban on such international organizations was lifted. Putin’s ban of MSF is another revived Soviet era policy. Putin gave no reason for the ban, but he is in charge and MSF left. The Russians working with MSF are still operating in the medical programs MSF began or enhanced. Putin can now call all this progress Russian rather than the result of international cooperation.

Another thing Putin wanted to avoid is NGOs manipulating the media as part of their own private international diplomacy. The NGOs have become a powerful force in the diplomatic arena, developing and promoting their own foreign policy. This was obviously not the case in Russia, which is a highly organized nation that does need more help in delivering better medical care to more of its citizens.

Putin feared that the good work done by MSF would reflect poorly on his government, which has not been able to deal effectively with public health problems. Part of the problem is that many medical resources have been taken from general health care duties and devoted to deal with nearly a million soldiers who were wounded or became sick while serving in Ukraine. Many medical personnel have been persuaded to go to Ukraine to provide medical treatment in the combat zone. Western militaries, especially the United States, have demonstrated that prompt medical aid, as close to the fighting as possible, saves lives. Putin is claiming his reinvention of this practice is a Russian idea and the presence of MSF contradicts claims of medical improvements being the result of Russian efforts and no one else’s.

Putin has earlier expelled foreign Non-Government Organizations, many of which did not provide medical aid but instead addressed problems the corrupt Russian government could not deal with. Putin did not want foreigners providing firsthand accounts of how bad the health care, and other situations were in Russia.